Synopsis

CD Reviews

The original album, as it was originally released

Nipistys | Canada | 10/08/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Just a word concerning the previous review by Cattail Muddy... Tombstone Valentine as it is released on CD is the way it was originally released in Finland. The US release contained the songs from the original album as well as songs from Wigwam's first release, "Hard n' Horny" (Mountain Range / Astronomical), and some songs from Blues Section (Call Me On Your Telephone / I Like You Bird Of Paradise / Wolf At The Door / The Gang Called The Vegetable Men (Answer To Life) / Anna Sukko Vain, Only Dreaming / Cherry Cup Cake / Semi-circle Solitude / End Of The Party), the precursor to Wigwam.

As for the original album, personal favourites are Tombstone Valentine, Dance of the Anthropoids (wierd electronic noise with a bit of a beat), Frederick and Bill (despite its racial overtones) and Captain Supernatural. Frederick and Bill reminds me of Zappa's work with Jean-Luc Ponty, with a good guitar/violin duel going on in the middle part of the song. Pembroke's lyrics were an afterthought! This album has Wigwam finding their way and establishing their sound. The album was the first to feature virtuoso bassist/violinist Pekka Pohjola.

(...)"

Half of a Pop masterpiece

Michael J. Melton | Pulaski, Wi United States | 04/22/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I can't remember where I bought this phongraph record in the seventies, but it was actually a double album and I miss some of the great cuts on that missing side (Only Dreaming, Call Me On Your Telephone, The End Of the Party, etc). Only scratched vinyl left to deal with for those songs! Still one CD side is better than nothing. This is well crafted and thoughtful pop with great musicianship, in the title cut a lonely girl wanders through a graveyard and "reads between the lines" on the gravestones to Steely Dan style music with mellotron and near perfect accordian accents. Dance of the Anthropoids is a moody electronic piece, while Fredrick and Bill is a jamming statement on Skinheads that has a fiddle dueling the electric guitar for the lead. This is not hard rock, this is not folk rock or punk. Strong jazz influence and it reminds me more of the later Beatles or Sitcky Fingers than a "straight ahead" group like Badfinger as these guys are creative and inventive. Well enough produced to be the Finnish Abbey Road, there is nothing sparse about this pop confection."

This kicks ass!

Speedy | Fl, MO USA | 05/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't beleive that this record is not among the classics of rock (you know, output by the likes of Birds, The Band, CSN&Y,Buffalo Springfield and such, come to mind) because it has all the qualities needed to qualify. Excellent pop compositions are filtered through these finnish musicians and the result is quite great. Not as 'progressive' as later outputs but nice nevertheless."